Westboro Baptist Church To Picket Lorde’s Kansas City Concert

Lorde’s concert will be picketed by the notorious anti-gay religious group Westboro Baptist Church, which the 17-year-old Kiwi found hilarious. The “Royals” international star has asked ticketholders to her Kansas City, U.S. concert to wear rainbow clothing in her concert, possibly to annoy the picketers.

The church, known for its extreme beliefs, announced its plans to picket the teen’s concert at the Midland Theatre in Kansas City on March 21. According to the group, Lorde “has NO wisdom worth having,” and that has apparently made her eligible for picketing.

“New Zealand came forth with a young lassie that doesn’t have enough sense to put in a thimble. Now the world has elevated her to the status of an idol. Then the world began to weigh in. They think this and that and blah, blah, barf,” a message on their Web site has been posted.

For Lorde, though, the whole thing was hilarious. She posted a series of tweets that she has since deleted, asking her fans to defy the WBC’s message of hate.

“hahaha omg just found out westboro baptist church are going to picket my show in kansas city. everyone wear rainbow clothing to that show. everyone try to kiss church members who are the same sex as you they will so love it Christmas comin early in Kansas city,” she wrote.

WBC responded with a Vine video, adding it with the message: “...go to Hell, Ella!” referring to Lorde’s real name of Ella Yelich-O’Connor.

WBC also parodied “Royals,” replacing the lyrics with their own spiteful words.

Lorde didn’t seem to mind terribly the WBC’s plan to picket her concert, and, based on the church’s history, she doesn’t need to.

The members of the WBC, known for their extreme anti-gay ideologies, have picketed shows of other artists, as well as funerals of people they thought had defied their church’s teachings. They are critical of the Jews, Catholics, Muslims, and other religions.

They picketed the funerals of Michael Jackson, Ronnie James Dio, and Matthew Shepard, who was beaten to death in 1998 by two men allegedly because of his homosexuality, among many others.